In Session » Metro General Serviceshttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics
Tennessee PoliticsMon, 07 Apr 2014 14:51:50 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6Well, that changes things: Nashville Farmers’ Market’s no-smoking policy comes as a surprise to new overseershttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2012/well-that-changes-things-nashville-farmers-markets-no-smoking-policy-comes-as-a-surprise-to-new-overseers/
http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2012/well-that-changes-things-nashville-farmers-markets-no-smoking-policy-comes-as-a-surprise-to-new-overseers/#commentsFri, 25 May 2012 18:56:36 +0000Michael Casshttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/?p=17167There’s a new boss for the moment at the Nashville Farmers’ Market, whose director is retiring as Metro tries to get a handle on financial problems that have put the market in a big revenue hole.

The new boss, Metro General Services, is busy making changes while the market’s board looks for a new director to succeed Jeff Themm.

But General Services is still learning some things, too.

When the market’s board met Thursday, General Services Director Nancy Whittemore and some of her deputies made presentations about what they had observed and done during their first week in charge.

Dianna Stephens, an assistant director of Whittemore’s department, mentioned that she had seen burning cigarette butts in dry grass and mulch at the farmers’ market. So she had decided to give smokers some receptacles where they could extinguish their cigarettes properly.

Just one problem: The farmers’ market is supposed to be a smoke-free facility. Making it easier for smokers to smoke safely wouldn’t exactly fit with that mission.

“Maybe it has not been enforced, but it was passed by this board months ago,” board chairwoman Tana Comer said. “We went through a big process to make this a smoke-free environment.”

This led to an occasionally funny eight-minute discussion about enforcement, personal freedom, the need for better signs and the duties of security guards:

- Stephens said General Services was under the impression the market was only smoke-free inside the sheds in which vendors sell their produce and other wares. Vendors chimed in from the audience that they understood that to be the policy as well.

- Board member Joshua Smith said he didn’t like the idea of “kindergarten cops” telling people who smoke outdoors that they can’t.

“I think it’s a freedom issue,” Smith said.

- Kay West countered that the policy is about promoting healthy, green living, not “babysitting.” West also said she smokes “the occasional cigarette – but it’s on my porch when I’ve had maybe a couple of glasses of wine.”

“But I don’t think it’s something we should allow in a farmers’ market,” West added.

- Margot McCormack, owner of the Margot and Marche restaurants, used an expletive to describe eateries that have smoking and non-smoking sections, as if there’s a wall between the two that can block the smell.

“Smoke is smoke,” she said.

- Smith felt compelled to note for the record that he doesn’t smoke or endorse smoking.

- As the discussion wound down, and whatever tension it sparked began to subside, a woman in the audience pretended to rise from her seat and joked, “I’m going to smoke a cigarette.”

I left the meeting a few minutes later so I could get to another event. As I walked to my car, I smelled smoke.

Looking to my left, I saw two men smoking just outside one of the sheds.

]]>http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2012/well-that-changes-things-nashville-farmers-markets-no-smoking-policy-comes-as-a-surprise-to-new-overseers/feed/0The boss sitting in the mayor’s office might not appreciate thishttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2009/the-boss-sitting-in-the-mayors-office-might-not-appreciate-this/
http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2009/the-boss-sitting-in-the-mayors-office-might-not-appreciate-this/#commentsThu, 08 Oct 2009 17:05:05 +0000Michael Casshttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/?p=7367UPDATE #1: Well, that didn’t take long – an hour, at most. I just checked the Nashville’s Priorities Facebook page again, and it now lists 45 fans, not 46, after Nancy Whittemore removed herself.

UPDATE #2: Nancy Whittemore just called me to say she had made “an honest mistake” and was fairly new to Facebook. She said she had to ask Metro Information Technology Services Director Keith Durbin to help her remove herself as a Nashville’s Priorities fan.

“That’s not what I use my Facebook for,” she said. “I will be a lot more cautious from now on.”

When I pointed out that Nashville’s Priorities has been in the news a fair amount the past couple of weeks, Whittemore said she didn’t remember seeing any stories about the group.

ORIGINAL POST: Nashville’s Priorities, the new group raising questions about the proposed downtown convention center, hasn’t exactly amassed a ton of fans on its Facebook page yet. (“We love Channel 4′s Snowbird!” has twice as many.)

But one of them (go to this page and click on the “46 Fans” link to see them, or just link from the group’s main page) is a department head serving under Mayor Karl Dean, the convention center’s most powerful champion.

Interestingly, Metro Codes Director Terry Cobb also shows up on the Nashville’s Priorities page, though not as a fan. Cobb posted a seven-paragraph answer to the question, “How would YOU spend a billion dollars for Nashville?” His first recommendation: “build the Music City Center – to be paid for with taxes paid by our visitors as proposed by Mayor Dean.”